Racing News: April 14 Morning Report

Keflezighi wears No. 1 at Boston; new world masters marathon record.

Meb Keflezighi Is Excited to Be Wearing Bib No. 1 at BostonWinning the Boston Marathon in 2014 means the 2004 Olympic silver medalist and 2009 New York City Marathon champion will be wearing No. 1, reserved for defending champions, on Monday. He’ll be the first American man to do so in more than three decades. This time in Boston, “I will use my brain,” Keflezighi said. “I have to be mentally in it up the Newton Hills and after that look at who’s who and what they’re doing.” He’ll strive to contend for the win, but as he said, “I have accomplished all my goals .…This is frosting on the cake.” More

Mungara Sets World Masters Marathon Record of 2:08:44Kenneth Mungara of Kenya was the overall winner of the Milan Marathon on Sunday as he took two seconds off the existing world masters best set by Andres Espinosa of Mexico in Berlin in 2003. Mungara didn’t begin running marathons until his 30s, and has now won 10 of them. He operated a barber shop frequented by runners when it dawned on him that he might be as fast as they were. More

Kampf and Miller Return for USATF 1 Mile in MinneapolisHeather Kampf and Craig Miller won the TC 1 Mile when it served as the USATF 1 Mile Road Championships in Minneapolis in 2012. They’ll be back for the championships on Thursday evening, May 14, on a different downtown Minneapolis course. It’s a hometown event for Kampf, who was an NCAA champion at the University of Minnesota and is now part of Team USA Minnesota. The winners each earn $5,000, with $10,000 bonuses available for breaking a men’s (3:56.1) or women’s (4:30.8) course record. More

All That We Know About Running Was Discovered by 1937Clarence DeMar, who won the Boston Marathon seven times between 1911 and 1930, penned a memoir called Marathon in 1937. DeMar was highly opinionated, and he was writing for a 1930s audience that knew very little about distance running. The book didn’t have much impact in its day, but 21st century experts agree that his comments on footstrike, mileage, focusing, and diet stand the test of time quite well. More

84-Year-old Holocaust Survivor Says Running Saved Her LifeIn 1975, Sylvia Weiner was the first woman recognized as a Boston Marathon masters champion, as she ran 3:21:38 at age 44. The 4-foot-11 Weiner has run virtually every day of the last 50 years. During the Second World War, she spent three years in various Nazi concentration camps, and was in Bergen-Belsen the day Dutch diarist Anne Frank died there. Weiner survived, but the memories that plagued her sent her into a deep depression. Then she discovered running, without which, she said, “my life would have slipped into some bad times.” More

Athletics Kenya Head Steps Down to Run for IAAF PostIsaiah Kiplagat is taking a three-month leave of absence from the presidency of Kenya’s national running federation to campaign for a spot as vice president of the IAAF, running and track and field’s international governing body. Jackson Tuwei becomes acting president on May 1, when Kiplagat leaves the office he’s occupied for 23 years, as Capital FM reports. Kiplagat’s tenure saw Kenya develop into the world’s premier distance running power but it’s recently been marked by an increase in positive tests for performance-enhancing drug use among elite athletes, including 2013 and 2014 Boston and Chicago Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo. More

Emma Coburn Doesn’t Think About Her Rivals MuchThe fastest American woman in history in the 3000-meter steeplechase said that in international competition, she finds her “best technique for coping” is to ignore the other women in her event and focus on herself. Her coaches tell her in practice or in a race that she’s the one who has to “make all the little things happen,” Coburn said. More